Chill Moody didn’t plan on writing a children’s book.
A story about a young athlete was bubbling in his head. And the West Philly-born rapper and serial entrepreneur wanted to turn it into a screenplay, mirroring the upbeat, have-faith vibe of fellow rapper Bow Wow’s 2002 film, Like Mike.
“Instead of basketball [in Like Mike], I wanted the story to be about golf,” said Moody, whose real first name is Eric.
“And instead of a little boy, I wanted my main character to be a little girl.”
But movies take forever to become a reality. Moody, always ready to churn out his next nice thing, wanted to get this fictional little girl, who rocks a red golf tee and wields golf clubs passed down from the ancestors, into the world quickly.
So Moody, and his coauthor and cousin, Danielle Kellogg, decided a children’s book would be their best bet. This way, Moody could share his message of inspiration directly with his target audience. His character would come alive with every page turn; and a skilled rapper, Moody could write a story that rhymed.
“There had to be alliteration,“ he said. ”So, I named her Gia,”
Gia the Golfer was released in December.
The 36-page picture book, featuring vibrant illustrations by local artist Stephen Hatala, is available on the Barnes & Noble website and Amazon, where it sells for $14.99.
So far, Moody said, he’s sold a few hundred copies of Gia the Golfer. And, he said, 100% of the profits will fund his nonprofit We Golf Now. The two-year-old nonprofit encourages Philadelphia’s Black and brown youth to develop confidence, social, and networking skills through playing golf.
Zane King, 6, get advice from Chill Moody during a We Golf Now event at Five Iron Golf in Philadelphia, Pa., on Sunday, March 30, 2025.
“We serve over 100 kids,” Moody said. “We teach kids how to play golf, the business of golf, and introduce them to careers and job opportunities.”
Moody sees Gia’s spark and optimism in all of his young golfers.
When we meet Gia, her grandfather, Geo, has just died. She and her mother are going through his things when Gia discovers golf clubs that belonged to Geo, a star golfer and winner of a lot of tournaments. She takes the clubs and practices on her own and seems to be a natural. Her mother signs her up for golf classes and, following in her grandfather’s footsteps, she excels and decides to compete in a tournament.
But, on the day of the tournament, the golf clubs — that twinkle like they could be magical — disappear. Gia has to play without them.
“I wanted to teach children about memories and dealing with grief,” Moody said. “And that even if you lose something that you think is important, you aren’t at a loss.”
Moody, 40, finished writing the book in 2024. He shopped it to publishers for nearly a year before taking the self-publishing route.
“I didn’t want to sell the books out of my trunk like I did with my music,” Moody said. “But then I remembered I did this so we could tell our children’s stories. I remembered I could do this … I bet on myself.”
In September, he partnered with Lansdale’s Boardroom Spirits and released Tequila Transfusion, a mix of tequila, grape, ginger, and lime — his version of the country club cocktail.
Just like his drinks, Moody has big plans for Gia.
“I’m thinking animated cartoons and plush toys,” Moody said. “I want her to blow up as a brand. Seriously, I’m thinking Gia will be the next Dora the Explorer.”
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve probably heard about the great blizzard rolling into Philadelphia this weekend.
We’re expecting more than a foot of snow, people! I’m from Ohio and I don’t remember an arctic blast forcing me to wade through that many blockades of ice.
But if you have any memories of the record-setting blizzard of 1996, when the city literally hauled out snow and dumped it into the Schuylkill and Delaware River, then you know the weather won’t stop Philadelphians from enjoying their weekend plans.
Lucky for you, I have a list of events that will make your time out in the cold worthwhile. (As long as your car doors aren’t frozen shut, and you’ve put enough salt down to open your front door, that is.)
(From left to right) Philadelphia Zoo Garden Service workers Joseph Mineer, of Fairmount, Naeem Price, of North Philadelphia, and David Wallace, of Southwest Philadelphia, are shoveling snow on the sidewalks near the bus drop offs in Philadelphia, Pa., on Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026.
A major winter storm is looking inevitable for Philly, with snow expected to stick around
Philly is getting SNOW this weekend — some forecasts are even calling for 17 inches. A winter storm watch is in effect for the entire region this weekend, meaning you might be spending a lot of time at home.
Expect canceled plans, back pain from shoveling, and empty grocery store shelves. The Inquirer’s weather expert, Tony Wood, has you covered with what to know about the impending storm.
🍫 Chocolate and booze, please: Want a warm and sweet buzz? Take a trip down to the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center on Saturday for the Philly Chocolate, Wine & Whiskey Festival. This trio will make for a luscious and savory time.
🎤 The return of an opera classic: For the first time in 15 years, Capriccio returns to the Academy of Vocal Arts stage. The Piet Mondrian-inspired run of Richard Strauss’ final opera runs through Sunday.
🔍 Here’s a Clue: Three words: Murder, mystery, and mayhem. That’s what’s on the menu for the theatrical whodunit, Clue, based on the classic board game and 1985 movie of the same name. The musical runs at Walnut Street Theater through Sunday. Are you in?
🎋 Honoring an iconic landscape designer: A documentary honoring Piet Oudolf, the man responsible for shaping the beautiful varieties at Calder Gardens, will play at the meditative green space starting Thursday through Jan. 30.
📅 My calendar picks this week: Lucky Girl Market at Bok, Dinos After Dark, World Sportscar Champion Demo Day
Four of the Philly area’s 15 James Beard semifinalists in 2026 (clockwise from top left): chefs Greg Vernick, Omar Tate, Amanda Shulman, and Frankie Ramirez.
After Philly was granted Michelin honors this past November, the James Beard Foundation has handpicked 13 local award semifinalists for 2026.
According to my colleague Michael Klein, this year’s list of James Beard Award semifinalists reads like a who’s who of the local dining scene, including a few surprises. Namely, Russ Cowan or Cherry Hill, N.J.’s Radin’s Delicatessen.
The list of semifinalists will be gleaned, and finalists will be announced on March 31. Winners will be announced at a gala on June 15 at the Lyric Opera of Chicago.
🖌️ It’s ink o’clock: Bring your wildest ideas to the tattoo table. Dozens of tattoo artists are setting up shop at the Pennsylvania Convention Center this week at the annualVillain Arts Tattoo Festival.
🎭 A new James Ijames creation: Arden Theatre Company’sGood Bones, the latest creation of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright James Ijames, explores the soul of a city in the face of looming gentrification. The play runs through March 15.
‘Face to Face’ with artistic greatness: Staged at Isaiah Zagar’s most famed masterpiece, the Magic Gardens Museum, comes another example of his artistic wizardry. The iconic artist’s new exhibition, “Face to Face: Isaiah Zagar’s Mosaicked Portraits,” displays intimate artworks of the people who influenced his life, work, and imagination. The exhibition is on view through April 12.
Is it technically fine to shovel just your own patch of sidewalk? Sure. Is it how you earn a good reputation on a Philly block? Absolutely not. So we debated it for you — and the consensus is this: one missed storm happens, but making a habit of stopping exactly at the property line (especially when elderly neighbors are around) is how people quietly clock you as that neighbor.
Snow melts. Reputations don’t. And in Philly, your block definitely notices. What are your thoughts?
🎤 Thursday: Rakim, arguably the most influential rapper during hip-hop’s golden age, takes over the Main Stage at City Winery on Thursday.
🎸 Friday: Singer and guitarist Alec Ounsworth, known as the face of the iconic indie band Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, kicks off his solo tour, “Piano & Voice,” in his hometown. Ounsworth plays at World Cafe Live on Friday and the Philadelphia Ethical Society on Saturday.
🎤 Saturday:The “Winter Carnival Tour,” headlined by rap duo Atmosphere, and featuring hip-hop luminaries such as R.A. the Rugged Man and Kool Keith, kicks off at the Brooklyn Bowl on Saturday.
🎸 Sunday: After completing a full bank tour for his new album, I Believe in You, My Honeydew, singer-songwriter Josh Ritter makes his way to Lancaster’s West Art for his solo tour.
The weather may temporarily halt your weekend plans, but as you can see, there are plenty of things to do before and after the storm hits. Stay warm and diligent, folks!
The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts has named an art museum veteran to be its next leader.
Kristen Shepherd will become president and CEO of the oldest art museum and school in the U.S. effective Feb. 9, PAFA announced Thursday.
Shepherd was executive director of the Museum of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg, Fla., for more than 5½ years, and previously held posts at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art.
She takes over PAFA as it faces financial challenges, remakes aspects of the institution, and prepares to cohost a major show this spring featuring works from the collection of Phillies managing partner John Middleton and his wife, Leigh.
Shepherd, 54, said that she had a “long-standing love affair with PAFA and its mission” that began when she was studying art history at George Washington University, where she earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in art history.
“I remember learning about PAFA as a student and just being absolutely floored at the idea of it. The fact that the founders, at the birth of our country practically, made an extraordinary statement about the importance of the fine arts in our young country that continues today.”
The name over the front entrance of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts’s 1876 building at Broad and Cherry Sts., Sept. 29, 2025.
Facing a $3 million deficit and enrollment numbers that had shrunk by about half since 2017, PAFA announced in January 2024 that it would be ending its degree programs at the end of the 2024-25 school year. This past fall it launched a new certificate program that leaders hoped would net more income.
The institution — which was founded in 1805 — began drawing more heavily on its endowment than industry guidelines suggest is prudent. To boost revenue, it has marketed rental of its art-making facilities and spaces in its Samuel M.V. Hamilton Building to outside groups.
Last summer, PAFA shut down its historic North Broad Street museum building for a year to replace the HVAC system and make other improvements, and leaders have been stumping for a donation in exchange for naming rights to the building.
The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts Furness and Hewitt-designed building (left), with banners announcing the building’s reopening in Spring 2026, and the Samuel M.V. Hamilton Building (right) on N. Broad St., Sept. 28, 2025. In between is the 51-foot-high ‘Paint Torch’ sculpture by Claes Oldenburg.
PAFA’s previous president and CEO, Eric G. Pryor, stepped down more than a year ago, and the museum and school has been run by a team of three administrators in the interim.
Last fall, PAFA and Temple University announced a new affiliation whereby Temple leases the 10th floor of the Hamilton Building, bringing PAFA much-needed revenue. The Center City site gives Temple a home for new programs, including a curatorial studies certificate program. It also gives students access to PAFA’s art-making equipment and its important collection of American art.
Shepherd says not only was she familiar with PAFA’s challenges and ongoing retooling, but they were a factor in her interest in the post.
“That’s actually attractive to me rather than being daunting,” she said. “There’s a lot to be thought through and analyzed, from risk assessments to financial stability and how to create the right financial scenario for the institution’s longevity.”
Sculptures used to instruct students at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, July 16, 2025.
Elliot Clark, a PAFA trustee and cochair of the search committee, said that in Shepherd, PAFA had found someone who can “expand membership and bring in new donors, new participants into the community.”
Clark said Shepherd’s “very keen financial mind” impressed PAFA’s leaders during the hiring process.
“She was a business analyst at Sotheby’s, and one of her roles was in strategic operations, and she’s very financially savvy. So she made us dance during the Q&A about financials.”
Clark called her “incredibly diplomatic — she’s a really talented communicator. She’s going to be a great ambassador both locally and nationally to the art community and the Philadelphia community.”
“And you know,” he said, “we’re not always an easy city to deal with.”
Shepherd led St. Petersburg’s relatively small Museum of Fine Arts (with a $6 million annual budget) from 2016 through 2022, and has run an arts consultancy since then with business partner Veronica Lane. At the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, she was associate vice president, head of audience strategy services. And, for 4½ years before that, she was director of the membership and annual fund program at the Whitney Museum of American Art. She worked at Sotheby’s for 9½ years in a variety of positions on the business side.
The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Oct. 22, 2024.
Her first few months at PAFA promise to be eventful. Clark says work on the Furness and Hewitt-designed museum building is on budget and on time; it is slated for a reopening celebration April 10. “A Nation of Artists” opens April 12.
The show, which takes place at both PAFA and the Philadelphia Art Museum, features more than 1,000 works curated by the two museums alongside those from the Middleton collection.
Temple’s programs at PAFA are expected to launch in late spring.
PAFA’s fiscal year ends June 30, which will reveal the direction of its finances.
“We’ll see where we are at the end of the year,” Clark said. “Some things have gone better, some things are not coming in as strongly as we would have liked. But overall, we’re still hopeful that we can get to break even this year.”
Ryan Coogler’s blues-steeped vampire epic Sinnersled all films with 16 nominations to the 98th Academy Awards on Thursday, setting a record for the most in Oscar history.
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences voters showered Sinners with more nominations than they had ever bestowed before, breaking the 14-nomination mark set by All About Eve, Titanic, and La La Land. Along with best picture, Coogler was nominated for best director and best screenplay, and double-duty star Michael B. Jordan was rewarded with his first Oscar nomination, for best actor.
Paul Thomas Anderson’s father-daughter revolutionary saga One Battle After Another, the favorite coming into nominations, trailed in second with 13 of its own. Four of its actors — Leonardo DiCaprio, Teyana Taylor, Benicio del Toro, and Sean Penn — were nominated, though newcomer Chase Infiniti was left out in best actress.
Double-duty “Sinners” star Michael B. Jordan was rewarded with his first Oscar nomination for best actor.
In those two top nominees, the film academy put its full force behind a pair of visceral and bracingly original American epics that each connected with a fraught national moment. Coogler’s Jim Crow-era film — the rare horror movie to win the academy’s favor — conjures a mythical allegory of Black life. In One Battle After Another, a dormant spirit of rebellion is revived in an out-of-control police state.
Both are also Warner Bros. titles. In the midst of a contentious sale to Netflix, the 102-year-old studio had one of its best Oscar nominations mornings ever, with 30 nods. As the fate of Warner Bros., which Netflix is buying for $72 billion, hangs in the balance amid a challenge from Paramount Skydance, Hollywood is bracing for potentially the largest realignment in the film industry’s history.
A coronation for Coogler
For Coogler, the 39-year-old filmmaker of Fruitvale Station and Black Panther, it was a crowning moment. One of Hollywood’s most esteemed yet humble filmmakers, Coogler has called Sinners — a film that he will own outright 25 years after its release — his most personal movie.
“I wrote this script for my uncle who passed away 11 years ago,” Coogler said in an interview Thursday morning. “I got to imagine that he’s listening to some blues music right now to celebrate.”
Reached by phone an hour after the nominations were read, Coogler — speaking alongside his wife and producer Zinzi Evans and producer Sev Ohanian — was still trying to process the movie’s record-breaking haul.
“I love making movies. I’m honored to wake up every day and do it. I was writing last night. That’s why I didn’t get too much sleep,” said Coogler, chuckling. ”Honestly, bro, I still feel a little bit asleep right now.”
The other top nominees
The 10 films nominated for best picture are Bugonia, F1,Frankenstein, Hamnet, Marty Supreme, One Battle After Another, The Secret Agent, Sentimental Value, Sinners, and Train Dreams.
Guillermo del Toro’s lush Mary Shelley adaptation Frankenstein, Josh Safdie’s period Ping-Pong odyssey Marty Supreme, and Joachim Trier’s family drama Sentimental Value all scored nine nominations. Chloé Zhao’s speculative Shakespeare drama Hamnet collected eight nods. With the notable exception of del Toro, those filmmakers filled up a best director category of Anderson, Coogler, Safdie, Trier, and Zhao, who in 2021 became the first woman of color to ever win the award.
The nine nods for Marty Supreme included a third best actor nod for 30-year-old Timothée Chalamet, the favorite in the category he narrowly missed winning last year for A Complete Unknown. With Jordan and Chalamet, the nominees are Leonardo DiCaprio for One Battle After Another, Ethan Hawke for Blue Moon and Wagner Moura for The Secret Agent.
Nominated for best actress was the category favorite, Jessie Buckley (Hamnet), along with Rose Byrne (If I HadLegs I’d Kick You), Kate Hudson (Song Sung Blue), Renate Reinsve (Sentimental Value) and two-time winner Emma Stone, who landed her sixth nomination, for Bugonia.
‘KPop’ leads a field light on big hits
The year’s most-watched movie, with more than half a billion views on Netflix, KPop Demon Hunters, scored nominations for both best song (“Golden”) and best animated feature. Sony Pictures developed and produced the film, but, after selling it to Netflix, watched it become a worldwide sensation.
Blockbusters otherwise had a difficult morning. Universal Pictures’ Wicked: For Good was shut out entirely. While Avatar: Fire and Ash notched nominations for costume design and visual effects, it became the first Avatar film not nominated for best picture. The biggest box-office hit nominated for Hollywood’s top award instead was F1, an Apple production that landed four nominations. The streamer partnered with Warner Bros. to distribute the racing drama.
This year, the Oscars are introducing a new category for casting. That new honor helped Sinners and One BattleAfter Another pad their already impressive stats. Along with those two films, the nominees are Hamnet, Marty Supreme, and The Secret Agent.
An international shift continues
The academy, which has expanded its overseas membership in recent years, also continued its tilt toward international films. Every category included one international nominee. For the eighth year in the row, a non-English-language film was nominated for best picture. More non-English performances were nominated than ever before.
The top nominee of them all was Trier’s Norwegian drama Sentimental Value. It cleaned up in the supporting actor categories, with nods for Stellan Skarsgård, Inga Ibsdotter LilIeaas, and Elle Fanning. Also nominated for best supporting actress, in addition to Taylor: Amy Madigan for Weapons and Wunmi Mosaku for Sinners. In supporting actor, the nominees included Jacob Elordi for Frankenstein and, in a surprise that likely dislodged Paul Mescal of Hamnet, Delroy Lindo for Sinners.
A competitive best international feature category mirrored the turbulent state of the world. That included the Iranian revenge drama and Palme d’Or winner It Was Just an Accident, by the often-imprisoned filmmaker Jafar Panahi. He’s spoken passionately against the ongoing crackdown of demonstrators in his home country. France nominated the film.
Also nominated: the Tunisian entry The Voice of Hind Rajab, about volunteers at the Palestine Red Crescent Society; the timely Brazilian political thriller The Secret Agent; the apocalyptic Spanish road movie Sirât; and SentimentalValue. Four of those nominees came from one independent distributor: Neon. The company, which has had an enviable streak of Palme d’Or wins, was second only to Warner Bros. with a collective 16 nominations.
The 98th Academy Awards will take place on March 15 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles and will be televised live on ABC and Hulu. YouTube’s new deal to exclusively air won’t take effect until 2029. This year, Conan O’Brien will return as host.
Carla Washington Hines, 72, of Philadelphia, longtime dancer, pioneering choreographer, celebrated teacher, former artistic director, collaborator extraordinaire, and mentor, died Sunday, Nov. 2, of sepsis at Temple University Hospital-Jeanes Campus.
Mrs. Hines came to Philadelphia from Virginia in 1974 after college and spent the next four decades dancing, teaching, lecturing, traveling, and generally advocating for arts in education from kindergarten through college. She danced with the Sun Ra Arkestra, the John Hines Dance Co., and other troupes at all sorts of venues in Philadelphia, New York, Chicago, elsewhere in the United States, and throughout Europe.
She choreographed original performances such as “Montage in Black,” “Reflections,” and “Life Cycle,” and collaborated with notable jazz musicians Herbie Hancock and Alice Coltrane, and other musical stars. She was a guest on TV and radio shows, read poetry at public events, and earned awards from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and the Philadelphia-based Bartol Foundation for education.
She was an expert in jazz dance, modern dance, ballet, and posture, and she lectured, organized workshops, and taught the elements of dance and choreographic principles at schools, colleges, art centers, drama guilds, libraries, and elsewhere around the country. Her mother, Thelma, was a dancer and teacher, too, and Mrs. Hines championed the connection between an interest in the arts and academic success.
“In dance, I can be anything I want to be,” she said in an online interview. “That’s the magic of the arts.”
She created an afterschool residency at a Universal charter school and taught dance at E.M. Stanton Elementary School, Strawberry Mansion High School, and other schools. She said in the online interview that her curriculum “is based on the appreciation of dance and movement,” and that it helps students “make sense of their lives using dance as a tool for learning.”
She said: “I want them to be able to understand through movement exploration how dance can change one’s life.”
She was artistic director for the Philadelphia chapter of the Institute for the Arts in Education and at thePoint Breeze Performing Arts Center. “Her creative guidance helped students tell powerful cultural stories through movement,” her family said.
Mrs. Hines performed with the Jones-Haywood Dance School in Washington before moving to Philadelphia.
As longtime community engagement manager for the Philadelphia Clef Club of Jazz and Performing Arts, Mrs. Hines wrote grants and choreographed performances. She was executive director of the John Coltrane Cultural Society and active at the old University of the Arts.
Her family said: “She devoted her life to creativity and to nurturing talent in others.”
Carla Yvette Washington was born Nov. 3, 1952, in Charleston, W.Va. Her family moved to Grambling, La., when she was young, and she graduated from high school in 1970.
She was named Miss Freshman at what is now Grambling State University, joined the Alpha Kappa Alpha Inc. sorority, and earned a bachelor’s degree in recreation in 1973. In 1981, she earned a master’s degree in fine arts and dance at the old Philadelphia College of the Performing Arts.
Mrs. Hines (left) smiles with her husband, Lovett, and their daughter, Zara.
She worked as a dance teacher for the Fairfax County Department of Recreation in Virginia after college and performed with the Jones-Haywood Dance School in Washington before moving to Philadelphia.
She met jazz musician Lovett Hines Jr. when they were students at Grambling and they married in 1984 and lived in West Oak Lane. They had a daughter, Zara, and Mrs. Hines welcomed her husband’s son, Lovett III, and his family into her family.
“She introduced many creatives to dance and culture, and sparked their creative careers,” her stepson said. “That is the essence of her legacy.”
Mrs. Hines and her husband, their daughter said, were “a partnership of two geniuses.” He played the saxophone and was artistic director at the Clef Club. She loved the drums, and they collaborated seamlessly on many notable projects.
Friends called her “a sweetheart” and “a beautiful soul” in online tributes. One said she “made an impact on Philadelphia and beyond in countless ways.” Her sister, Alicia Williams, said: “Everyone had a special relationship with her.”
Mrs. Hines graduated from Grambling High School in Louisiana in 1970.
Mrs. Hines was diagnosed with a lung disease in 2024 and Stage 4 cancer in 2025. “She was stern but soft,” her daughter said, “loving but able to tell you like it is.”
Her husband said: “She had special relationships with so many musicians, so many people. It was through insight, understanding, and patience. In them, we see her everyplace, feel her everyplace.”
In addition to her husband, daughter, mother, and stepson, Mrs. Hines is survived by three sisters, two step-grandsons, and other relatives. A brother died earlier.
Services were held Wednesday, Dec. 17.
Mrs. Hines (center) said she adapted her teaching techniques to suit the needs and ages of the students.
As Joshua Weikert shared ground rules for quizzes in his early morning international relations class, he sought to put his students at ease.
“I don’t want you stressing out about these,” he said Tuesday, as the new semester got underway at Immaculata University in Chester County.“I myself was a terrible student.”
Weikert, 47, of Collegeville, may not have been a star student, but he sure knows a lot.
The politics and public policy professor will compete onJeopardy! 2026 Tournament of Championsat 7 p.m. Friday on ABC, having won six games when he was on the show in March.
Joshua Weikert teaches a class in international relations at Immaculata University.
Over a couple weeks, Jeopardy! shows will feature him vying against 20 other champions, including Allegra Kuney, a doctoral student at Rutgers University’s New Brunswick campus, and Matt Massie, a Philadelphia lawyer who moved to the area in 2024, who also will appear on Friday’s show.
Friday’s match is a quarter-final, and if Weikert wins, he’ll advance to the semifinals. (Kuney won her quarter-final Tuesday.)
Weikert won about $103,000 when he competed last year, 10% of which he donated to a memorial scholarship fund named for his late friend, Jarrad Weikel, a Phoenixville man who died unexpectedly at age 40 in 2022. The winner of the champions tournament —which will conclude sometime in early February — will take home a grand prize of a quarter million.
Weikert will watch the show Friday among family and friends — including his fellow contestant Massie — at Troubles End Brewing in Collegeville, which named one of its beers after him. It’s an English Bitter, one of Weikert’s favorites, called “Who is Josh?”
At Immaculata, a Catholic college where Weikert has taught since 2016, students and staff are stoked. A campus watch party is planned, President Barbara Lettiere said.
His appearance last year, she said, has put a welcome spotlight on the school and brought an outpouring of enthusiasm from alumni. On tours, some prospective students and their parents who spot Weikert have recognized him, she said.
“I never knew that this show was as watched as it appears to be,” she said. “Win or lose, Immaculata wins.”
Student Ben Divens talks about his Jeopardy-star professor Joshua Weikert.
Ben Divens, 19, said it’s “jaw-dropping” and “surreal” to know his teacher will compete in the Jeopardy! champion tournament.
“I knew from the first time I met him he was a super, super smart person,” said Divens, a prelaw major from Souderton.
“He’s guided us so much in our major already,” added Bailey Kassis, 18, a political science major from Fort Washington.
“He’s guided us so much in our major already,” student Bailey Kassis said about her professor Joshua Weikert.
An early gamer
Weikert said he has watched Jeopardy! ever since he can remember, probably since 1984 when he was 6, and it came back on the air with Alex Trebek as host. He grew up just outside of Gettysburg in a family that loved to play games, he said.
“We took them very seriously, which is to say that they didn’t just let the kids win,” he said of his parents, both of whom had accounting degrees. “We were destroyed routinely in the games we played.”
About his performance as a student, he said he often skipped his homework.
“Just give me an exam,” he said, describing his attitude at the time. “I’ll pass it.”
He got his bachelor’s degree in international relations from West Chester University, master’s degrees from Villanova and Immaculata, and his doctorate from Temple. He also attended the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center, where he studied modern standard Arabic while serving in the U.S. Army.
Joshua Weikert sets expectations for students as a new semester gets underway at Immaculata University.
In addition to teaching, he also works as a policy adviser to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives under state Rep. Joe Webster, a Democrat serving part of Montgomery County. He vets legislators’ ideas and offers ideas of his own.
“The only thing they’ve ever told me no on was [when] I tried to abolish the Pennsylvania Senate,” he said.
So many bills pass one body, then die in the other, he explained. If there were one legislative body where all House and Senate members served, that might be different, he said.
Weikert’s office walls are lined with framed newspaper front pages highlighting major events: “Nixon Resigns,” “Nazis Surrender,” “Man Walks on Moon,” “Kennedy Shot to Death.”
“Every once in a while, I just get up and read one of the stories,” he said.
He got them from his mother-in-law’s basement and put them up after his wife told him his office needed some decor.
Weikert’s status as a Jeopardy! champion makes clear he’s a fast thinker. He’s also a fast talker.
“I don’t really drink caffeine. I just talk this fast,” he told his students.
His wife, he told the class, tells him to slow down.
“Keep up,” he tells her, he said.
The road to Jeopardy
Since his mid-20s, Weikert has been trying to get on Jeopardy!. Years ago, he got a call from the game show, but he put the caller on hold to get to a quiet place. They hung up.
“I was like, well, I guess I missed that opportunity,” he said.
But he kept trying and started taking the online tests, which typically draw 200,000 participants annually. In 2024, he got an email, inviting him to take the test again — and then again under Zoom surveillance.
Next came a virtual audition and practice game in August 2024. That earned him a place in a pool of about 3,000 people, of whom a few hundred eventually became contestants.
Weikert got the call last January and was invited to fly to California the next month to compete.
In reality, his varied interests and life path had already prepared him for the show. He reads a lot. He’s a fan of historical fiction, pop culture, and movies. His work as a public policy scholar helps, too.
But to try and up his game, he read plots of Shakespeare plays and a book on great operas. He flipped through lists of presidents and vice presidents. His wife, Barbara, a Norristown School District middle school music teacher, read questions to him from old Jeopardy! shows. He knew about 80% of the answers, he said.
That, however, didn’t stop him from having panic dreams of being on stage and knowing nothing.
The toughest category for him, he said, is popular music. Movies, history, and politics are his strongest.
But the hardest questions, he said, are the ones with four or five strong possible answers.
“Getting a Jeopardy! answer right is more about knowing what it’s not than what it is,” he said.
Ultimately, he said, it’s impossible to really study for the game show.
“The odds that something you study would come up is almost zero,” he said.
It was an intense experience on stage last March, but the staff put contestants at ease, he said. Host Ken Jennings, formerly one of the show’s most successful contestants, told them, according to Weikert: “I promise you something today is going to be a win for you, so just relax and have fun.”
He has a hard time remembering his winning answers. He readily recalls his dumbest, he said.
The answer was “sacred cow.” He uttered “holy cow.”
“Even as it was coming out of my mouth, I knew it was wrong,” he said.
He’s proud that he only froze on one answer involving lyrics from the B-52’s “Love Shack,” he said.
There was less pressure competing in the championship match last month, given he was already a winner, he said. But it was harder in that the contestants were the best of the best.
“During the regular season, it’s a little under a quarter of a second between when you can start to buzz in and when the buzz actually comes,” he said. “In the tournament of champions, that drops to 0.08 seconds.”
This time, he also prepped by reading children’s books on topics such as basic cell biology, a tip he got from another contestant.
“It’s the simplest language they can use to convey the information,” he said.
He also read the book, Timelines of Everything: From Woolly Mammoths to World Wars.
He most enjoyed the camaraderie among contestants, he said. When filming was over, they hung out in a bar and — watched Jeopardy!.
On Dec. 1, 1898, about 1,000 people gathered at a court in Textile Hall — today’s Kensington neighborhood. They were there to watch the Philadelphia Hancock Athletic Association play the New Jersey Trenton Nationals in America’s first professional basketball game.
According to an article in the following day’s Philadelphia Times, the game got a late start because referees were still ironing out the rules of the world’s newest professional sport.
But once the game got underway, it was fast and furious.
Hancock “started with a rush, scoring two field goals before the players had become warmed up to their work,” the story reads.
“Throughout the entire first half, the home team had the better of the argument, taking advantage of every opportunity finishing the half in the lead by a score of 11 to [0].”
In the end, Philadelphia lost by two points, a disappointment Philly sports fans know all too well, even in these modern times.
The final score: 21 to 19.
Daniel Lipschutz blended history into his love of the modern day sport for this sculpture.
That first game of the National Basketball League will be feted this Saturday at a Firstival at Xfinity Mobile Arena. Firstivals are the Philadelphia Historic District’s weekly day parties celebrating events that happened in Philadelphia before anywhere else in America, and often the world. They are part of a yearlong celebration of America’s 250th birthday.
James Naismith, a YMCA coach in Springfield, Mass., invented basketball in 1891 to keep kids active during winter months. The sport incorporated elements of rugby, lacrosse, and soccer. Instead of throwing balls into a bottomless net to score, players threw balls into peach baskets.
(In other words, there was no such thing as a rebound.)
James Naismith, inventor of basketball, with a ball and a basket.
Basketball quickly became popular with college students and in 1898, Naismith was recruited to coach the University of Kansas basketball team.
That same year, Horace Fogel, sports editor of the Philadelphia Public Ledger, organized the first professional basketball league with three teams from Philadelphia and three from South Jersey.
A 12-foot chain-link cage separated players from the fans. Ropes replaced these iron cages in the 1920s.
Fogel’s National Basketball League lasted just five years, folding in 1904 because of quick player turnover eating into profits. A second league was formed in 1937 and was sponsored by Goodyear. In 1946, the Basketball Association of America was established.
And in 1949, the BAA and NBL merged to create today’s NBA.
“This really goes to show that Philadelphia is a sports city,” said Shavonnia Corbin Johnson, vice president of civic affairs for the 76ers. “When people talk about Philadelphia sports rooted in history, tradition, and passion, it’s true, but now we know that America’s true love of sports can trace its roots right back here.”
This week’s Firstival is Saturday, Jan. 24, 11 a.m. — 1 p.m., at Xfinity Mobile Arena, 3601 S. Broad St., Philadelphia, Pa. Premium Access Entrance on the Broad Street side, near Lot C. The Inquirer will highlight a “first” from Philadelphia Historic District’s 52 Weeks of Firsts program every week.
WASHINGTON — The Washington Post asked a federal court on Wednesday for an order requiring federal authorities to return electronic devices that they seized from a Post reporter’s Virginia home last week, accusing the government of trampling on the reporter’s free speech rights and legal safeguards for journalists.
A magistrate judge in Alexandria, Va., temporarily barred the government from reviewing any material from the devices seized from Post reporter Hannah Natanson’s home. The judge also scheduled a Feb. 6 hearing on the newspaper’s request.
Federal agents seized a phone, two laptops, a recorder, a portable hard drive, and a Garmin smart watch when they searched Natanson’s home last Wednesday, according to a court filing. The search was part of an investigation of a Pentagon contractor accused of illegally handling classified information.
“The outrageous seizure of our reporter’s confidential newsgathering materials chills speech, cripples reporting, and inflicts irreparable harm every day the government keeps its hands on these materials,” the Post said in a statement.
The seized material spanned years of Natanson’s reporting across hundreds of stories, including communications with confidential sources, the Post said. The newspaper asked the court in Virginia to order the immediate return of all seized materials and to bar the government from using any of it.
“Anything less would license future newsroom raids and normalize censorship by search warrant,” the Post’s court filing says.
The Pentagon contractor, Aurelio Luis Perez-Lugones, was arrested earlier this month on a charge of unauthorized removal and retention of classified documents. A warrant said the search of Natanson’s home was related to the investigation of Perez-Lugones, the Post reported.
Natanson has been covering Republican President Donald Trump’s transformation of the federal government, The Post recently published a piece in which she described gaining hundreds of new sources from the federal workforce, leading one colleague to call her “the federal government whisperer.”
Attorney General Pam Bondi said that the search was done at the request of the Defense Department and that the journalist was “obtaining and reporting classified and illegally leaked information from a Pentagon contractor.”
Perez-Lugones, a U.S. Navy veteran who resides in Laurel, Md., has not been charged with sharing classified information or accused in court papers of leaking.
The Justice Department has internal guidelines governing its response to news media leaks. In April, Bondi issued new guidelines restoring prosecutors’ authority to use subpoenas, court orders and search warrants to hunt for government officials who make “unauthorized disclosures” to journalists.
The new guidelines rescinded a policy from Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration that protected journalists from having their phone records secretly seized during leak investigations.
Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press president Bruce Brown said the unprecedented search of the reporter’s home, “imperils public interest reporting and will have ramifications far beyond this specific case.”
“It is critical that the court blocks the government from searching through this material until it can address the profound threat to the First Amendment posed by the raid,” Brown said in a statement Wednesday.
The character Tracy, played by actor Samantha Cutaran, shows up to cover the unexpected success that the school has seen while operating out of an abandoned mall. (They were forced to relocate after Abbott’s furnace broke.)
Four weeks into the disruptive move, student grades begin improving and incidents go down.
“You’re changing the face of education,” Tracy tells the teachers. “So much so, we think this is worthy enough for the front page. You guys are rock stars!”
It would’ve been funny to see how each of these characters would act in an interview — Janine (creator Quinta Brunson) might be nervous about saying the wrong thing, Jacob (Chris Perfetti) would (hopefully) praise the free press, and Melissa (Lisa Ann Walter) would be skeptical and uncooperative — but the show cuts directly to the newspaper delivery. (Yes, we’re still in print!)
“Extra, extra, read all about … us!” says Barbara (Sheryl Lee Ralph) as she drops the paper on a table.
Designed by Abbott Elementary’s props and production team, the mock front page pictures the teachers and principal Ava (Janelle James) surrounded by students with the headline, “Do schools even need schools?”
A mock front page of the Philadelphia Inquirer as seen in Season 5 of ‘Abbott Elementary.’
Janine is thrilled that the article includes her quote, “Teaching is fun.”
“Did they use mine?” Melissa asks. “‘The Giants suck.’ Is that in there?”
(Sadly, it’s not.)
The reporter, in her objectivity, excluded that insight (no matter how many real readers would agree), but Melissa is still impressed.
“The Schemmenti family name on the front page,” she says, “and nowhere does it say ‘evasion, tax, or conviction.’”
The Inquirer calls the Abbott crew “heroes” for the work they have done, drumming up positive press for the school district and leading Scholastic to donate new school supplies.
But the excitement peters out when the shrewd guidance counselor (Marcella Arguello) points out that the school district continues to be vague whenever the teachers ask when they’ll be returning to Abbott. The students are performing so well, she reminds them, so there’s “no sense of urgency.”
They later discover that the district has pulled Abbott’s construction crew to address facility problems at other schools.
It’s not all bad news, though: While the rest of Abbott Elementary was caught up with The Inquirer (we love that for us), Mr. Johnson (William Stanford Davis) clashed with the new janitor who was sent to help him clean the massive mall. Miss Carroll is played by newcomer Khandi Alexander.
“I may be old-fashioned, but women have no business cleaning,” Mr. Johnson tells the camera. “You ask me? They need to get back to where they belong — in the Wall Street board room and coaching in the NFL.”
William Stanford Davis (Mr. Johnson), Tyler James Williams (Gregory Eddie), and Quinta Brunson (Janine Teagues) in “Abbott Elementary.”
The feud doesn’t last as the two bond over using the same homemade cleaning solution. It’s a sweet turn for the mysterious Mr. Johnson; audiences have heard many tales of his backstories, from being a Jill Scott stalker to a member of the Mafia, but he hasn’t yet had a romance plot.
Until this episode, that is.
Mr. Johnson’s odd jobs — some 400 before he came to Abbott — are part of the fun for Davis.
“I’m always surprised at what they want me to do, and I try to embrace that and have as much fun with it as I can,” said the actor in a recent interview with The Inquirer.
Davis himself has worked his fair share of odd jobs, throughout his career, like DJing a country western radio station, driving a limousine, cooking at a truck stop, and other “survival gigs,” as he calls them.
“I try to bring those real-life experiences to Mr. Johnson, because they weren’t all very pleasant either, but it helps me to continue to develop this character,” said Davis.
“As an actor, you’re supposed to be able to play everything that a human being can be, and so I try to connect to Mr. Johnson’s truth, even though his truth is a little stranger than most people’s … He’s an honest, living, breathing human being. He’s just a little different than everyone else, and he’s a little smarter than everyone else.”
There is one job that Davis hopes the writers will work into Mr. Johnson’s lore: “I’m waiting on them to make me an astronaut.”
Budding Philly entrepreneurs, it’s time to bring your bold ideas to the table and put your negotiation skills to the test. ABC’s Shark Tank is returning to Philadelphia for an open casting call on March 18.
The hit reality showwill hold in-person auditions for season 18 at the Rivers Casino Philadelphia.
“Whether you just have a fantastic idea, are a startup or already operating successfully and looking to expand, if you feel you have a lucrative business or product and could use financial backing, then Shark Tank is just the show for you,” reads a news release.
Eunique Hunter of Drexel Hill with “The Bear Hug, a friendly, hassle-free stay-put child companion.”
Auditions will take place at the Event Center at Rivers Casino, located at 1001 N. Delaware Ave. Wristbands will be distributed from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m., and interviews will begin at 10 a.m.
The Philadelphia stop marks the show’s final in-person open call of 2026, and the only one on the East Coast. Tryouts are open to anyone 18 or older, or those accompanied by a parent or legal guardian, according to the announcement.
At right is Maya Nazareth founder and CEO of Alchemize Fightwear, Friday, December 5, 2025. She is shown with practitioners of jiu-jitsu the Vault Jiu-Jitsu, Morton, PA, Friday, December 5, 2025. Ladies are wearing Alchemize designed jui-jitsu clothing.
If selected, entrepreneurs will have a chance to pitch their concept, product, or service to industry titans Robert Herjavec, Daymond John, Kevin O’Leary, Barbara Corcoran, Lori Greiner, and Daniel Lubetzky.
Philly’s talent pool has already made a considerable impression on the show.
The show’s casting officials held an open call at Rivers Casino in April 2025. Later that year, Philly-based entrepreneur Maya Nazareth struck a $300,000 deal on the show for her women’s combat sports apparel company, Alchemize Fightwear.
Orka Bar founder Stephen Longo of Belmar, N.J., secured a $100,000 investment for a 25% stake in his high-protein dessert brand.
Interested candidates can apply online or attend the in-person audition. For more information and eligibility requirements, visit abc.com/sharktank.
